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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25156276">What Lurks Beneath The Stairs</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/motheyes/pseuds/motheyes'>motheyes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Magnus Archives (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Compliant, Gen, Introspection, Season/Series 01, The Magnus Archives Season 1, anyway i'm studiously ignoring the current events of canon so have a season 1 fic, i think my brand is just Pretentious Inner Monologue with Heavyhanded Symbolism now, jon has a rare moment of self awareness</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:08:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>953</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25156276</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/motheyes/pseuds/motheyes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jonathan Sims does not believe in the paranormal. So, why is he working here in the first place?</p><p> </p><p>(or: a look into jon's skepticism in season one.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>What Lurks Beneath The Stairs</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Jonathan Sims does not believe in the paranormal. Or, well, he doesn't believe in most of it; as he sees it, there's a weird drug trip, an undiagnosed mental illness, or some sort of scientifically explainable phenomenon behind almost every ghost story. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He believes in just enough, though, that he ends up dressed in his one nice suit for a job interview at the Magnus Institute.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The head of the Institute himself, Elias Bouchard, is the one who takes his interview. This certainly strikes Jon as a bit odd, but he figures it's not really his place to judge. This is his first job straight out of college after all, and it's not like he knows more about running a business than the head of an entire Institute. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He manages to stutter his way through the interview, and even though he feels awkward and out of place as Elias' eyes seem to bore into him from across the desk, he doesn’t think Elias notices his nervousness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He gets the job.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He gets the job, and, for a position at a place supposedly linked to the supernatural, it's not all that exciting. Anything seemingly supernatural can be debunked in a heartbeat. Tim is the only vaguely-interesting thing there, and that's mostly just because Jon hasn't really had any friends since Georgie.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He follows up on statements and cross references things and it's all wonderfully, dreadfully boring.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That is, it's all wonderfully, dreadfully boring until the Head Archivist goes missing under mysterious circumstances. It's all wonderfully, dreadfully boring until Jon's been promoted (at Elias’ insistence) and suddenly he has his own office and is technically Tim's boss. He meets a couple new people, his Archival Assistants. Sasha seems like the most competent of the bunch. Martin… is quite the opposite.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now, instead of researching statements from afar, he's organizing them, and, most importantly, recording them. Most of them are the usual nonsense but some, the ones that can't record onto his laptop, those ones somehow send chills up his spine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He supposes it's because he's no longer the one seeking out direct proof for the statements. He's no longer the one researching and discrediting them, so maybe he's gone a bit soft.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He says as much to Tim, once, as Tim drops off a handful of statements that can't record digitally.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Why do you even work here, if you're just going to declare everything some sort of freak accident," Tim asks, a note of frustration in his voice, and Jon.... Jon finds he doesn't really have an answer. He says as much, and Tim scoffs, rolling his eyes as he leaves Jon's office. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jon does his best to go back to work, but Tim's question hangs over his head for the rest of the day. When he's finally packing up his things, late, late at night, he lets himself ponder it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Why </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> he working here? He's - honestly, he's never asked that question of himself before. The Jon of four years ago had taken the research job  straight out of college, and had quite honestly been desperate for any work at all. Sure, he happened to pick the Institute over a number of other jobs, but that could be chalked up to coincidence. In the present, he certainly doesn't particularly </span>
  <em>
    <span>enjoy</span>
  </em>
  <span> his job as Head Archivist - Gertrude left such a mess behind that anyone would be having a nightmarish time, and that's disregarding Jon's issues with, ahem, certain coworkers. So, why hasn't he quit, moved on to a job where he's not constantly faced with unrealistic statements and angry statement-givers?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He considers, for a moment, as he flips off the light switch to his office and makes his way out of the dark, empty Archives, that maybe a part of him really does care about archiving the paranormal and trying to find scientific proof of it. It's the most obvious answer, and it's the one he'd given Elias when he was interviewed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Although… that doesn't feel quite right. Yes, finding concrete proof of </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything</span>
  </em>
  <span> is important to him, but not really the paranormal in particular. He would probably enjoy any other library or archival job just as much. On top of that all, he can recognize the irony of a mostly-skeptic working at a paranormal research institute.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It's not like he's not a believer, though. He has Mister Spider to thank for that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That latches him on to his next train of thought, as he strolls down the streets of London on his route home. Finding proof that he's not insane, that he didn't hallucinate what happened twenty years ago... that would be a good reason to keep working at a job that he otherwise hates. There's certainly no end of Leitner-related statements. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Although at this point, he reasons, if he didn't know that he wasn't hallucinating, that would be rather idiotic of him. Maybe he doesn't understand everything about what happened when he was eight years old and still just barely clinging to innocence, but he understands enough that he </span>
  <em>
    <span>should</span>
  </em>
  <span> have proper closure by now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally, he's back at his flat, and he shakes himself out of his own thoughts long enough to get inside, drop his things all over the main room, and collapse in bed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he stares up at the ceiling, just on the verge of passing out, he's hit with one last idea. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A part of him... well, enjoys isn't quite the right word. A part of him </span>
  <em>
    <span>relies</span>
  </em>
  <span> on tearing into statements that he feels are false. Most statements are lies or delusions or otherwise fake, and he likes it to stay that way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After all, if they were anything but, that would be quite the horrifying existence.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>wee woo first tma fic!!! have had this idea buzzing around in my head for a bit and i needed to express it so here it is. this one's short but i think it's a good one.</p><p>thank you for reading! i hope you enjoyed. please leave a kudos or a comment if you did - i know it's pretty common to see authors asking for those, but they genuinely make my day so much better. thank you again and i hope you have a wonderful day! &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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